I've spent a lot of time on this forum, and am usually able to figure things out without even having to post a new thread. Thanks for all your invaluable help.

I'm redoing the galley in my 1973 Sovereign, and have decided to keep the original cabinets and paint them (to avoid expense and waste). I'm planning however to put new doors on, most likely 3/4" frame and panel overlay. I've had a lot of cabinet experience in the past, but never attaching doors to such thin cabinets. Has anyone else tried something like this? If so, what hinges did you use and how did they work? I've mostly used euro-style hinges in the past, but that was connecting 3/4 doors to 3/4 cabinets. Would love any advice/suggestions.

I'm also planning to make the cabinet doors over the sink/stove flip-ups. Has anyone found an arm that attaches easily to hold them up? what about getting them to close against the cabinet (more than 90 degrees).

I'm also planning to make the cabinet doors over the sink/stove flip-ups. Has anyone found an arm that attaches easily to hold them up? what about getting them to close against the cabinet (more than 90 degrees).

73,
Our overheads have a strut on one side that help hold the door almost 90 degrees to the opening. They work well but I think the tension of the hinges helps a little as well.
Did a quick search and they are $3 or 4 a piece at many rv outlets.
Good luck.

I've spent a lot of time on this forum, and am usually able to figure things out without even having to post a new thread. Thanks for all your invaluable help.

I'm redoing the galley in my 1973 Sovereign, and have decided to keep the original cabinets and paint them (to avoid expense and waste). I'm planning however to put new doors on, most likely 3/4" frame and panel overlay. I've had a lot of cabinet experience in the past, but never attaching doors to such thin cabinets. Has anyone else tried something like this? If so, what hinges did you use and how did they work? I've mostly used euro-style hinges in the past, but that was connecting 3/4 doors to 3/4 cabinets. Would love any advice/suggestions.

I'm also planning to make the cabinet doors over the sink/stove flip-ups. Has anyone found an arm that attaches easily to hold them up? what about getting them to close against the cabinet (more than 90 degrees).

Thanks all!

You are lucky of that!

Would love to know shat type of paint are you intending to use on the cabinets! And you MUST post pics of before/after.

I cannot locate a pic of a '73 galley cabinet setup but I think it has the curve down toward the aft of the trailer. I know the '74s did. and the pics in the link below are of a '72 curved galley front.. so I assume the '73 is same??

the guy was known as Sneakinup and lived in Georgia I think.
alas he has not posted since 2006 nor checked in since January 2009. His blog is defunct, and he has vanished like so many other of the great ones around here...go figure why?

You prob will not be able to find Sneakinup for advice, but you might scour his previous posts for tidbits of knowledge. I promise you that you will become envious of his works (if you are anything like me).
That door frame work is great, not sure how or what he piano hinged it to and I have forgotten what he said he used for the skins, mabe melamine maybe not.
Let me know what you think of his work.
If you can duplicate it I may want to drive over to Austin and talk.

Thanks everyone. Here is a "before" picture. I actually don't have the curved kitchen, which is going to make my reno easier.

In case anyone else is in the market, I'm planning to buy doors from Walzcraft Custom Cabinet Doors - as I no longer have a wood shop. They do nice work and can make just about anything--decent prices too.

If your cabinets have solid face frames like the older models had then you really should try to hinge the doors off of the face frame if possible. Adding blocking could be done, but I would still be concerned about the integrity of the cabinets with the doors hinged off of the 1/4" ply side panels. In mine these side panels were flexible and not very stout to begin with. I would stay away from concealed european-style hinges for an Airstream due to the weight:1/2 pound per door adds up fast. Ditto on the door style: solid wood doors with raised panels are a lot more weight than originals, at least on earlier models. Mine are 3/8" plywood for small doors and 5/8" plywood for the tall doors. You didn't say what you were planning for the door panels. I would go with 1/4" plywood inset center panels over solid raised panels everytime.
If you do glue blocks into the cabinets to hinge from they would be much stronger if they were one vertical piece running from top to bottom, rather than just a small block at each hinge location. This will help reinforce the thin cabinet side panels. Liquid nails is okay but messy to work with and clean-up. Gorilla glue expands, and will push the block away from the side panel as it cures unless you can clamp them as they cure. I would use Titebond III waterproof glue, and then you could just tape them in place while the glue cures, if you can't get a clamp on them. It cures to a very light yellow so is not very visible.
There are thousands of hinges and stays available on-line. Maybe look at Rockler or similar catalogs for those. Way too many options without knowing your exact situation to make any good suggestions on that.

I replaced all of the tamber sliding doors in my 76 31' sovereign with hinged cabinet doors. I also replaced the long hinged door at floor level with slide out drawers. I did not want to tear out the entire cabinet so I made sure it was secure and made a frame from 1x2 popular wood strips pre-assembled with the door and drawer sizes and then attached this to the front of the existing cabinets. I then had a sturdy base to attach the cabinet doors and drawers. It works great. Take your measurements and then attach the wood strips with brads and glue and then attach with countersunk screws covered with wood putty to you cabinet front.

Here are some pdf pictures of my kitchen counter and cabinet remodel. You can see the frame I built in the pictures with the counter top off before I installed the new solid surface top.

73,
I agree with Viking on his points with the mounting of hinges. Our 1979 cabinets were really flimsy and I also looked for ways to mount hinged doors but in the end, decided it would be better to build the cabinets from scratch. If you used a strip the entire length up and down to hold the doors, it may be sound enough but you would have pretty much rebuilt them at that point. As well, we are using a 1/4" paneling floating in a 3/4 frame for our doors when we get to that point for less weight. I am going with a euro hinge (smaller than most though). I like them because they only hinge 90 degrees so don't need any other hydraulic/stops in conjunction.

Distantdrummer,
Wow! The galley redo in that link is something else!

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the guy was known as Sneakinup and lived in Georgia I think.
alas he has not posted since 2006 nor checked in since January 2009. His blog is defunct, and he has vanished like so many other of the great ones around here...go figure why?

You prob will not be able to find Sneakinup for advice, but you might scour his previous posts for tidbits of knowledge. I promise you that you will become envious of his works (if you are anything like me).
That door frame work is great, not sure how or what he piano hinged it to and I have forgotten what he said he used for the skins, mabe melamine maybe not.
Let me know what you think of his work.
If you can duplicate it I may want to drive over to Austin and talk.

best of luck

Man, I was trying like heck to find this for the OP. I saved pics of Sneakinup's galley to my desktop but could not, for the life of me, recall his name. All the pis's have the "-med" in the name, so I was looking through the member list for someone with that extension.

Anyway, his trailer was posted in the Classifieds here awhile ago - for sale. I was sick and wished I was in the market for another TT.

I am planning to strengthen/reinforce the cabinets with 2x4s for a new counter top. Maybe folks are right and at this point it makes sense to just build a new cabinet, however I full-time and don't want to spend time without a stove/sink. In addition I don't have anywhere to store a partially built cabinet.

Folks will probably think I'm crazy for adding the weight, but I'm also planning to put in a butcher block counter top (thus the 2x4s). I'm justifying this weight luxury with the fact that with my current setup almost all the heavy things in my trailer (bathroom, water heater, fridge, tool storage) are on the curb side of the trailer and I want to balance that out.

Hi seventythree,
If you want to minimize the additional weight you can get butcherblock in 3/4" or 1" thicknesses from some suppliers. Also, 2x4s are overkill for supporting this, but they are relatively light if they are dry wood.
Aluminum cabinets do present a problem when trying to change things. You almost have to use rivets to do anything with them at all. If there is a place you can rivet leaf hinges onto the cabinets that may be a solution.
Rich the Viking

P.S. You're right, it is crazy to add weight unnecessarily. I'm just glad you said it first!

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